Typical examples A retired professor of business law and computer science who was taking Zocor to lower his cholesterol was diagnosed with rapidly progressing probable Alzheimer’s disease. It got to the point that he had trouble carrying on conversations and recognizing people he’d known for 20 years, and long-term care was looming. After hearing about the association between statins and memory loss, he stopped taking Zocor, and over the next few months his cognitive function returned to normal. A successful 50-year-old business owner started taking Lipitor in 1998. Within three years he was wracked with pain and weakness, and his memory and concentration were so poor that he was forced to close his business. Although he’s improved somewhat since getting off Lipitor, he continues to have severe cognitive problems. Seeing split wood scattered all over her porch, strange footprints in the snow, and a plate of partially eaten food in her kitchen, a 69-year-old woman became convinced that someone had broken into her house. The next day, she realized that the footprints were hers—but she had absolutely no memory of what happened. After stroke, blood clots, and other causes were ruled out in the ER a few days later, she was told she had experienced temporary loss of memory, or transient global amnesia (TGA), of unknown origin. She had started taking Lipitor four months before. A woman reports, “My husband has been on Lipitor for years, and I/we have noticed that more and more his memory and focus have been impaired. We are told that there is no such evidence that Lipitor could cause this. I have watched my husband change from a Harvard Business School graduate who could accomplish more in four hours than most could in four days to someone who has already had a TGA attack and, in the two years since, has become more forgetful, unable to complete tasks, loses track of time...” Statins’ Second-Most Common Side Effect These are not isolated incidents. After muscle pain and weakness, cognitive problems are the second-most common side effect of Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Mevacor, and other cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. Hundreds of cases of statin-induced memory loss and TGA have been reported to MedWatch, the FDA’s system for filing adverse drug events. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. That’s because people taking these drugs—more than 12 million in the United States—who develop memory problems are unlikely to put the two together. They aren’t warned sufficiently on drug labels or inserts about this adverse effect, nor do they hear about it in TV, newspaper, and magazine ads. Doctors aren’t telling them about it either, largely because they don’t know about it themselves.Doctors: Don’t Know, Don’t Tell Take Lipitor, for example, the best-selling drug in the United States. The Physicians’ Desk Reference includes reasonable mentions of the potential for liver toxicity, muscle aches, and weakness. However, nowhere does it allude to Lipitor’s cognitive side effects other than a one-word mention of “amnesia” in a long list of things purported to have occurred in less than two percent of patients. And in the clinical studies on the drugs—virtually all of which are funded by drug companies—benefits are emphasized while adverse effects are downplayed. To make matters worse, government and cardiology “opinion leaders” are so conflicted by drug money that they ignore the obvious red flags. Without this awareness, physicians and patients alike are much more likely to attribute declining memory or blackout spells to dementia, stroke, or just old age than to cholesterol-lowering drugs. In fact, if a patient complains about memory problems related to the drugs, the doctor will almost always discount it. But the word is getting out, thanks to people like former astronaut Duane Graveline, MD, MPH, and researcher Beatrice Golomb, MD, PhD.Lipitor Caused Complete Amnesia In 1999, Dr. Graveline was put on Lipitor to lower his moderately elevated cholesterol. Six weeks later, his wife found him wandering around their driveway, unable to recognize her, or his surroundings. She managed to get him to his doctor, who was perplexed by this episode of severe memory loss, which passed after a few hours. Dr. Graveline, who was in excellent health, had a hunch that Lipitor was involved because he had just started taking it, and it was the only drug he was on. His doctor disregarded his concerns and, a year later, talked him into getting back on the drug. Sure enough, he had another episode of TGA, this one lasting 12 hours. Despite his physician’s naysaying, Dr. Graveline was convinced that Lipitor had caused his problems. When he came across the Statin Effects Study, headed by Dr. Golomb of the University of California, San Diego, he was vindicated. Since 2000, Dr. Golomb has been gathering case reports of patients who have had changes in thinking, mood, and behavior while on statin drugs. I recently interviewed Dr. Golomb on my radio show, and she told me that while physicians might not make the association between memory problems and statin drug use—or take the time to report adverse events—patients trying to get to the bottom of their problems have a vested interest in doing so. So far, she has received more than 4,000 reports of cognitive dysfunction—some of them so severe they were diagnosed as rapidly progressing Alzheimer’s disease. Once Dr. Graveline made his experience public, he, too, was inundated with reports of statin-related amnesia, forgetfulness, disorientation, and other memory problems. His Web site, spacedoc.net, and message board contain nearly 10,000 accounts of statin damage, plus a plethora of information on the adverse effects of these drugs.

To be continued in Part 2

Julian Whitaker, MD, has practiced medicine for more than 30 years, after receiving degrees from Dartmouth College and Emory University. In 1979 he founded the Whitaker Wellness Institute, located in Newport Beach, CA. For more information on the clinic, call (800) 488-1500 or visit www.whitakerwellness.com.Dr. Julian Whitaker is the author of 13 health books, including Reversing Hypertension, The Memory Solution, Shed 10 Years in 10 Weeks, The Pain Relief Breakthrough, Reversing Heart Disease, Reversing Diabetes, and Dr. Whitaker's Guide to Natural Healing.